In the past couple of years, I’ve flown in and out of Florida several times, to Seattle, New York, San Francisco a couple of times, Kansas City, Boston, Columbus, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Sydney Australia. I’m probably forgetting one or two…but the point is, I fly quite a bit. Not as much as some of the “road warriors” out there, but certainly enough that I’ve gotten a feel for some of the major airlines and which ones are better overall.
When I have a choice, I try to fly Frontier whenever possible, and avoid United like the plague, and here’s a good example why: A man recounts the ordeal with United after his wife broker her leg and needed extra legroom on a United flight:
When we got to the gate in Denver, the agent refused to change our seats, instead summoning an “SD”, apparently some kind of manager, at my insistence. Scott (“With two t’s. Make sure you get it right,” he snidely instructed me as I wrote down his name) was pompous, arrogant, and entirely unhelpful. He claimed the flight was full and refused to do anything but put us on a different flight, if there even was one. At this point my wife was exhausted and sobbing, which affected him not a bit. Finally, another supervisor “found” her a bulkhead seat, but United sells these seats as “Premium Coach” or somesuch, so I had to fork over $54 to seat her there. He then miraculously “found” me another seat next to her and ahem, generously waived the fee for my seat. When we boarded the plane, there was still insufficient leg room for her, which was slightly alleviated by angling her leg into my seat space.It turns out the plane was only about 60-70% full (our six bulkhead seats had only two others sitting in them), and they could have easily given my wife an entire row to use by only moving one or two people. It would have cost United not a penny, and it would have earned our eternal goodwill.
The final insult came from the flight attendant, who insisted that she not use her backpack to prop up her leg during takeoff and threatened to call the captain if we did not comply. We did; she and I spent the next fifteen minutes holding her leg up with her hands.
I’ve never had to fly United with a broken leg (or anything else) but this is totally United’s MO: They are super-rigid about billing the living hell out of you for an emergency exit row seat or any seat with additional leg room. $54 for a single leg of a flight for five additional inches of leg room… it boggles the mind.
In my experience, they have the world’s worst flight attendants and customer service reps — they seem to take great joy in making the experience as unpleasant as humanly possible, and it takes some creative bitchiness to make air travel even more unpleasant than it already is these days.
I’ve actually had CSRs ignore me when speaking directly to them to try to figure out what’s going on with a flight, and you can forget about getting an upgrade to exit row or whatever unless you’re one of their super-special frequent fliers.
Contrast this with American Airlines and Frontier… this weekend, on the way back from Florida, I asked for (and received) an emergency exit row seat without any hassle or fuss from American Airlines, and I don’t even have an AA frequent flier account. (But will probably sign up for one post-haste.) Nearly every time I fly Frontier, as long as I am there early, I can ask for and receive an upgrade to the exit row aisle seat I prefer.
I have also had the same experience with United flight attendants and “personal items” that must be stowed away. I usually carry a small bag or backpack that has my iPod, books, Moleskine notebook, reading glasses, and other assorted necessities for flying. I prefer to keep this in my lap for easy access. Nine times out of ten, flight attendants have nothing to say about this. Whenever someone does choose to make an issue out of it, it’s invariably a United flight attendant — who usually walks by five women with purses the same size as my bag in their laps — to scold me for not “stowing away personal items for takeoff/landing.”
You know what? If we have enough turbulence that it would cause the bag to fly from my hands, passengers are going to have far more to worry about from the weak-assed latches on the overhead luggage compartments popping open than from my iPod or Moleskine smacking them in the back of the head. If the plane crashes, well… I really think whether or not people have stowed their personal items is going to be irrelevant.
All airlines screw up from time to time, and have unpleasant flight attendants and CSRs, of course — but it seems to be company culture with United, not an exception to the rule.
If you must fly, I strongly recommend avoiding United at all costs.
I have flown with United more than one time. It is my experience that this airline is much better than all of the rest.
I agree, this comes as no suprise after my experience with United. I;ve also found they have exceptionaly unproffesional and unhelpful customer service reps. I’d advice any one never to fly Unisted unless you are truely desperate!
United’s customer service is nule, zero, nada. The worst that I had ever seen, bar none.
I’ve had nothing but great experiences flying United.
Well, bar none, I think my experience surpasses all!!
Last week my husband, two kids and I were flying to Idaho Falls from Colorado Springs (via a connection in Denver) to see my 80 year-old father-in-law and my mother-in-law who was just diagnosed with a fast growing cancer and had just begun her chemotherapy. We arrived at the Colorado Springs airport an hour before the flight, checked in, and checked our bags. Before proceeding to the gate, the United customer service agent told us she could not assign our seats because there were no two seats available together (I purchased the tickets from the United website two weeks previously and the website would not allow me to choose seats – not an option) and she told us to proceed to the gate where the attendant there would try to rearrange the seating so that at least one adult could sit with a child. We waited at the gate for about a half hour (no attendant in sight and the flight was scheduled to leave in a half hour). Finally, an attendant showed up at the gate next to the one we were supposed to be flying out of and posted our flight number. It took her about 10 minutes (during which time she would not talk to anyone) to punch in the flight number, destination (to Denver) and finally entered in that the flight was delayed approximately 45 minutes (or more). By the time we got her to speak to us and she pulled up our reservation she told us that there was no way we would make our connecting flight from Denver to Idaho Falls. She proceeded to tell us that there was another flight later that night (about 6 hours later), but that there was only one seat available from Denver to Idaho Falls. The next flight out that she could get us on would not be until Sunday (this was Friday). At that time she mentioned that if we could drive up to Denver we might make our connecting flight. The main thought running through my mind at this point is “WHY IN THE HELL DIDN’T THE WOMAN CHECKING OUR BAGS TELL US OUR FLIGHT WAS DELAYED? – THEY HAD TO HAVE ALREADY KNOWN.” If she had done that, the next phase of this store would have had a better outcome.
So, I call my friend who had just dropped us off at the airport and had her come back and pick us up (this only took about 10-15 minutes) and we drove from Colorado Springs to the Denver Airport at about 90 miles an hour. During this drive I was calling United to find out what is the latest time we can arrive at the gate and still make our flight (given that we already had boarding passes and have already checked our luggage). I never could get a response from the dingbat on the phone – she only gave me a canned response which had nothing to do with what I was asking. Anyhow, we get to the airport at 2:00 (our flight was to leave at 2:26). We race through the airport, get through security with relatively no problems and run down to the underground train which is to take us out to the correct terminal. Once we get to the right terminal, we run from gate 33 to gate 88 – YES, THAT’S OVER 50 GATES TO RUN AND ABOUT A QUARTER OF A MILE!! We get to the gate at 2:15 and the attendant had just closed the door to the ramp. Someone told me that she would just be right back. About 2 minutes later she comes back and I give her our boarding passes (which we already had from Colorado Springs). She then proceeds to tell me that the flight is closed at which time, out of breath and sweating profusely, I argue that the flight can’t possibly be closed because the plane is not due to leave for another 10 minutes. So, after arguing for about 5 minutes and requesting a supervisor, the other 10-15 passengers from our original Colorado Springs flight show up breathing heavy and sweating. The supervisor tries explaining to us that the flight is closed. I do need to mention at this time that the plane only holds approximately 45 people and almost 20 of us are standing at the gate waiting to get on and the walk ramp has still not been removed from the plane, nor has it backed away from the gate. I would also like to mention that just about all of United’s flights from the day before had been cancelled due to bad weather and that just that WING of the terminal was filled with thousands of people trying to get a flight out and get home or on to their destinations. One would think that United, knowing all of these people were on their way, would hold the plane for just 5 minutes to accommodate everyone. At the breaking point, I said (at the top of my lungs – and I have BIG lungs) “UNITED SUCKS!” – which is when the supervisor called security. My husband was able to calm the supervisor down so the security never showed up, but you can be sure if they had that I would have made sure I was on the 6:00 news relaying my story and making sure everyone watching knew what a piece of shit airline United is and how they don’t give a damn about customer service or meeting the needs of their customers.
Ok, so the next leg of our journey takes us to what they apparently consider “helping us out” but was really a brush off. They put us on a flight to Salt Lake City (over 250 miles away from our destination) which ended up being delayed for yet another 3 hours. We arrive in Salt Lake City at approximately 7:00 p.m. and after calling 12 rental car agencies there are no cars available anywhere in SLC. We ended up having to call my 80 year-old father-in-law and my ailing mother-in-law to drive 6 hours (one-way) to come and get us. We arrived at their house at 3:30 a.m. after driving 6 1/2 hours through a blizzard.
The general disregard and unconcern from the United representatives and their responses to our questions (no matter what question you ask they would repeat an answer that had nothing to do with your question to give you the impression that they understand very little of our language) made me a true ANTI-UNITED flyer. My husband flies through United for his work and is a frequent flyer – I won’t go into problems he has had with them.
I would just like everyone out there to know that there are other airlines that have wonderful staff and attendants who truly enjoy their job and try to make the traveling experience a good one (I just love AmericaWest).
I have yet to resolve with United the fact that they owe us some money because the flight from Denver to Salt Lake City was a substantially cheaper flight than the one we paid for, but alas, I am not holding out too much hope in that arena.
I still stand firm about my statement in the Denver Airport – “UNITED SUCKS!â€
Hi, im from singapore. Ive taken singapore air, british, cathay and most of the major airlines but recently flown united for the first and last time of my life.
THEY R THE WORST AIRLINE why? because of THEIR OLDEST AND WORST FLIGHT ATTENDENTS who are the most arrogent people ive ever seen.
must be thier union… too united?
totally arrogent and totally useless.
I agree. I used to be a big supporter of United. Some years I was a Premier status, some years not. Being from Denver I felt I pretty much had to use United. Even when others complained, I defended them behind their back. Even when service reports in the Wall Street Journal and other reputable newspapers and magazines rated them as mediocre, I told everyone I could that I had always had good experiences with them and still recommended them. That has changed in the last year. They are now the most inept airline I can imagine. They screw things up more than they get it right. I actually totally DESPISE them. I hate American Airlines worse, but I will now, after 17 years of defending them, go out of my way to bad mouth them. Their service is totally DISGUSTING. I hate flying them. It now makes me ill to think of flying them. I highly recommend Frontier now.
In this day and age of airline problems… customer service should be KING… when it isn’t it sure makes me think about EVER traveling with that airline again. I had a nightmare experience with WestJet in Canada… they didn’t care…details on my blog.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience with United. That does sound awful. However, it is a FAA requirement for all personal carry on items including purses and backpacks, etc. to be stowed for take-off and landing. This is for your safety. When things go wrong it is on take-off or landing. The purpose of stowing carry on items is so that the aircraft would be ready to evacuate in the unlikely event of an emergency. I know air travel is a bitch. Try having to get 100 folks to stow their bags and their seatbelts fastened for their own ultimate safety. It is like hearding cats!! Not easy. You could drive.
Hey Lori. More of us WILL be driving rather than spending money on your joke of a government subsidized airline. Good luck in the unemployment line!
Rather than pump money into a 3rd world airline that deserves to go out business, I decided to fly Lufthansa to Munich next month. I would not fly United if United paid me what I paid for the ticket on Lufthansa.
Hey Ron. I don’t work for United. Enjoy your drive.
Thru the 39+ years wrkg for UAL I have seen a “primier” air carrier downsize to “pinto” stature. Survival being the name of the corperate game for all U.S. airlines since deregulation. Some like UAL, American, Continental, Delta, US Air have barely survived but others have lost. UAL’s route structure still makes it possible for the carrier to survive for now. Like most Americans whose wages have been cut or jobs lost cheap tickets is all that matters and who ever can make that happen should be in charge. Throw in our right to flight safety as an FAA requirement and convenience and see how far “cheap” really takes you. If UAL goes out of business basically another carreir will take its place. You think a foreign carrier will solve our convenience problems, maybe but their gov’t laws make it so that an American won’t be able to work in their company. Ya, most of UAL’s flight attendants are old and bitchy and some are foriegn nationals but they are working because of our laws. Putting it in perspective, inconvenience to Americans is just another day to third worlder’s. American’s are spoiled and that’s good because we basically have a superior way and life still. So please complain, bitch, grumble its your social American priviledge…